The Secret Society for Torah Study on behalf of the Jewish People - Rare Ledger Handwritten by Rabbi Shmuel Shapira ...

The Secret Society for Torah Study on behalf of the Jewish People - Rare Ledger Handwritten by Rabbi Shmuel Shapira, Rabbi Shmuel Hominer and Others

Touching handwritten ledger from Agudat Chaveirim - a group of glowing young men from Jerusalem who gathered together to study Torah and complete Sha"s all together. Jerusalem, Tammuz- Tishrei 1929. They eventually grew to be among the tzaddikim of Jerusalem of yesteryear.

In the introduction to the ledger, the members write that there are many mitzvahs among the 613 that do not apply to everyone. For example, Land-of-Israel-dependent mitzvahs for a person who lives abroad, mitzvahs relating to a kohan for a Yisrael, etc. But is not everyone obligated in all the 613 mitzvahs? When all unite in love and brotherhood, they are considered to have fulfilled them themselves. As such, the members write, as each person is obligated to study the entire Torah, and "when one Yisraeli studies Tana"ch, and another studies Tractate Berachot, and a third Tractate Shabbat, etc, one in Sha"s Bavli and one in Sha"s Yerushalmi, one studies Mechilta and another Ramba"m, etc. - if they are joined together in love and brotherhood, each one of them is considered to have studied everything that each of them studied.

Later on in the ledger, the members took upon themselves, in writing, each according to his ability, to study a certain amount of gemara in a specific amount of time in mid-1929. It is astonishing to see the number of leaves that the young men take upon themselves:

Rabbi Shmuel Shapira: "... one hundred leaves in Tractate Bava Batra by 15 Av ..." (this is from 14 Tammuz - 100 leaves in one month); "120 leaves on Tractate Bava Batra by 29 Elul..." (from Rosh Chodesh Elul) "... 250 leaves from Bava Batra and Bava Metzia, by Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan ..." (starting 26 Elul - 250 leaves of gemara in one month!)

Rabbi Shmuel Hominer: "... Fifty leaves, most from Tractate Ketubot and a few from Tractate Bava Metzia, by 15 Av ..." (14 Tammuz); "... 18 leaves of gemara until Rosh Chodesh Elul ..." (17 Av); "... 54 leaves (thrice Cha"i) in Tractates Ketubot and Bava Metzia by 29 Elul ..." (Rosh Chodesh Elul); "... 90 leaves in Bava Metzia and Ketubot, by Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan ..." (27 Elul)

Rabbi Chaim Reuven Chazzan (Singer): "Thirty leaves in Tractate Bava Metzia and twenty leaves in Tractate Ketubot by 15 Av ..." (13 Tammuz) "... 60 leaves in Tractates Ketubot and Bava Metzia by 29 Elul ..." (Rosh Chodesh Elul); "... 100 leaves in Ketubot and in Bava Metzia until Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan ... " (3 Tishrei)

Rabbi Yehudah Leib Frank: " ... 100 leaves in Tractate Bava Metzia by 29 Elul ..." (Rosh Chodesh Elul); "... 250 leaves in Tractate Bava Metzia and Shevuot, by Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan ..." (27 Elul)

Rabbi Chaim Yeshayah Hacker: "130 leaves, most from Bava Metzia and a few from Ketubot by 15 Av ..." (16 Tammuz)

And more. The other participants included: Yitzchak Greenberg, Mordechai Broner, Shalom Dov Epstein.

[17] written pages + many blank leaves. 10.5 cm. Very beautiful ledger - its aesthetics, and even more so, in its contents.

Fine condition. Stains. Softcover binding, worn and slightly torn.